


Come On And Bare Your Teeth

by Bruteaous



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-11-18 04:09:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18112985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bruteaous/pseuds/Bruteaous
Summary: Set in the wish-verse of Lizzie’s third wish from episode 1 x10. The night before Lizzie finds out about the merge and accidentally kills Josie, Penelope and Josie share a moment.





	Come On And Bare Your Teeth

**Author's Note:**

> “…I could take you there
> 
> If you let me see
> 
> Why you are the one
> 
> And you are one for me
> 
> Time is wasted up
> 
> I'm not losing sleep
> 
> Don't just stand and stare
> 
> Come on and bare your teeth...” 
> 
>  
> 
>             —partial lyrics for the song “Bare” by WILDES—

 

Penelope sighed, leaning back tiredly against the rough wooden wall behind the uneven mattress she called a bed.

 

A candle flickered on the bedside table and an angry wind tore at the latched shutters that covered the room’s singular window pane. Mother nature’s confusion at the growing interference of global warming was continuing to punish them all in the form of gale force winds and sometimes near blizzard conditions depending on the day. The local weathermen and women—used to the more predictable range of Virginian weather—didn’t know what to make of it either if the conflicting radio broadcasts the rebels were able to get sometimes on the long range satellite radio in the observatory were anything to go by. Highs possible in the 70’s, lows in the mid to low 20’s. Good luck planning for that. The only perk to the ambivalence of the climate for Penelope and most of the locals of Mystic Falls was that it tended to dictate how often human forces under High General Stick-up-His-Ass could send his soldiers out to attack the scattered pockets of rebels who called the area home.

 

A storm brewing overhead tended to favor the Resistance fighters, particularly Alaric’s merry bands of misfits who could afford to hunker down in their bunkers below the old Salvatore mansion and ration their meager resources until it passed whereas any government patrols that were sent out couldn’t afford to be away from their bases of operations for long without risking death by exposure or ambush by a hungry wolf or vamp who’d be more than happy to make a quick meal out of an enemy stuck in the snow. The surly mid-winter weather would keep the government’s black booted goons at bay for at max a few more days or so, but as soon as the winds died down and what little ice or snow they’d received in the meantime cleared, then the real war would start up again.

 

Until then though, Penelope was determined to enjoy the illusion of peace while it lasted. The slight creak of her bedroom door opening drew the lanky brunette’s attention from her ruminations to the shorter, but familiar figure tiptoeing the door closed even though there was no one who would bother to chastise either teenager for sneaking around to be together when the world had already gone to hell around them years ago.

 

The more aloof witch couldn’t help it as the corners of her mouth crept up into the Rachel McAdams imitation smirk she’d patented back when she’d been a mean girl herself. “You know you don’t have to be so quiet right?”

 

Josie Saltzman—the younger daughter of their resistance leader and the love of Penelope’s teenage life—paused at that as the door slid the last few inches shut on its own. Then she smiled ruefully and shrugged; uncaring.

 

“Old habits die hard, I guess,” Josie hissed in a loud whisper that completely ruined the point of whispering to begin with.

 

Penelope giggled despite herself, then whispered back conspiratorially, “Why are you whispering, Jo-Jo?”

 

“I don’t know,” Josie admitted at a more normal volume. She smiled that wide, all too genuine smile that was uniquely Josie and started giggling too. When the seconds of amusement had passed them by, Josie crept forward and perched comfortably on the side of the narrow twin bed. Penelope instinctively scooted closer to the opposite wall to give her girlfriend space to climb in. When she and Josie were finally sitting side by side, both leaning back against the wall, the younger Saltzman twin reached out and tucked an errant strand of Penelope’s jet black hair behind one of her ears tenderly.

 

“What were you thinking about when I came in?”

 

Penelope kept her face neutral and raised an elegantly indifferent eyebrow in the flickering light, “What makes you think I was thinking about something?”

 

Josie raised both of her eyebrows at her girlfriend as if to say, ‘Really?’ But unlike whenever Penelope did it, there was a warmness woven into the gesture that welcomed other people in, not kept them at bay. Everything about Josie was open and kind in an easy way that the war and the world that made it had beaten out of most people by early adolescence. It was just one of the many things Penelope loved about Josie. Not that she would ever admit that out loud where the ears of the world could take the words in and use them against her whenever it wanted.

 

Wasn’t it enough that Josie had somehow wedeled her way past Penelope’s painstakingly engineered emotional defenses? Before the taller witch had even realized it, her girlfriend—then crush—had glimpsed the side of Penelope that their peers were never given access to and no matter how hard she had tried to make Josie let it go, the woman never had and somehow they’d ended up here. Together.

 

And—even though it still terrified her more than anything else to have someone that close to her heart—Penelope wouldn’t have it any other way. A soft touch on her chin brought Penelope back to the present where one of Josie’s hands was caressing Penelope’s bottom lip with a thumb in a half moon motion that was distracting.

 

“You’re awful spacey tonight,” Josie commented, dark eyes seeming to stare directly into Penelope’s unprotected soul, “It’s a shame really because I had plans for you, but if you’re too busy for the beautiful, sexy girl in your bed then…”

 

Josie began to rise back onto her feet, but no quicker had she spoken the words than Penelope had responded by wrapping a hand around her waist and pulling the other girl back on top of the bed, rolling them until Penelope was on top.

 

“And where do you think you’re going?”

 

Bare-arms wove themselves like ropes of the softest velvet around the back of Penelope’s neck, fingers playing idly with the silky strands of her hair in a way that Josie knew drove her to distraction.

 

“Nowhere now,” Josie practically purred from beneath her. The smaller girl arched her body, stretching slightly as she wove her legs in between Penelope’s before dragging a socked foot up the outside of one of Penelope’s calves. “Unless…”

 

And just like that a little bit of the ever constant light faded from Josie’s eyes as she seemed to consider that perhaps she was intruding after all.

 

“Unless you really don’t want me h—”

 

 Penelope cut Josie’s insecurities off with the press of soft lips over hers. The kiss was gentle; warm, and comforting. When it ended dark eyes stared down into slightly lighter eyes in a show of awe that such a small thing could have so much meaning wrapped up in it.

 

“Believe me, I always want you here with me.” Penelope said, “A world without you wouldn’t be worth fighting for anyway.”

 

Josie cocked her head to the side as she regarded her paramour thoughtfully, “what a thing to say.”

 

“Well, it’s true,” Penelope huffed, resting her chin on Josie’s shoulder as they watched one another. “I’m sure your sister—as much as I hate her—and your father would say the same thing.”

 

Josie’s fingers ran down Penelope’s hairline, brushing the same errant strand of dark black hair as before back behind the other witch’s ear where it belonged, “My dad wouldn’t. Not that he wouldn’t feel that way, but my dad would keep on fighting. He would go on because he’d know that’s what Lizzie and I would want him to do. We’d want him to fight and to live even if we weren’t there to see it. I’d want the same for you.”

 

Penelope swallowed and closed her eyes, not really wanting to continue this line of conversation. It was always better, she thought, to cross such bridges when you had to, not before.

 

“I know you don’t think so, but you’re fearless. You’re loyal. That’s why my dad trusts you to lead the witches into battle on his behalf,” Josie said, cupping Penelope’s cheek just as the other witch opened her eyes to look at her, dark depths swirling with orange candlelight like molten lava. “And you deserve to live a life after this stupid war is over with. It’s what I’d want for you if—”

 

Penelope leaned up, capturing Josie’s lips in a fiercer kiss than the one before, wanting to erase the thought of ever having to lose Josie under any circumstances from both of their minds. Tonight was theirs. They were together and they would be in the morning, come whatever found them afterward. In a world like theirs, that was all that mattered.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it. Leave a comment on the way out should you desire. Thanks for reading. :)


End file.
